Senate Intelligence Panel Agrees Russia Intervened to Help Trump

After 14 months of “reviewing the sources, tradecraft, and analytic work," Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr concluded that the intelligence community was correct in its assessment last year about Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. The Kremlin had clearly interfered in the presidential election to boost Trump's chances, Burr said in a statement.

Vice Chairman @MarkWarner and I released the following statements regarding today's Senate Intelligence Committee closed hearing to complete its review of the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”: pic.twitter.com/AK6vgim8Ly

"We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election," the intelligence community said in its January 2017 findings. "Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump."

The intelligence panel's conclusion comes shortly after the Senate Judiciary Committee released the transcripts of their interviews with Donald Trump Jr. regarding his controversial meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in 2016. In their interviews, Trump Jr. said he agreed to the meeting after being told it would produce information about Hillary Clinton. Yet, that information did not materialize, he said, after it was clear the lawyer just wanted to discuss Russian adoption. He also said he did not inform his dad about the meeting.